he had to face (La Cultura, XII, 1933, pp. 375–391). Buonaiuti claims as his own two works of a modernist tendency published anonymously in 1908: Lettere di un prete modernista ("Letters from a Modernist Priest"), which he considered "a youth's sin", and Il Programma dei Modernisti ("The Modernists' Program"). His modernist positions are motivated by scientific reasons (Biblical criticism and exegesis). Initially his modernism seemed similar to the positions of Protestant liberal theologians like Albrecht Ritschl and Adolf von Harnack; however, after researching spirituality in the ancient world, from Zarathustra to the Greek tragedians, Buonaiuti began to recognize in pre-Christian spiritual experiences an anticipation of the Christian view of life. Buonaiuti claimed to be Catholic and to want to stay so usque dum vivam ("as long as I live"), as he wrote to the theology faculty of the University of Lausanne, which had offered him a chair in History of Christianity if he joined the Calvinist Church. Buonaiuti and John XXIII Buonaiuti was an exact contemporary in Rome with Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, who was elected to the papacy as John XXIII in 1958. According to Roncalli's biographer Peter Hebblethwaite the two men were initially close friends, and this connection may have played a part in the future pope's abrupt removal from a seminary post early in his career, as well as in the "Suspected of Modernism" entry which was made against Roncalli's name in his official record in the Vatican archives, something he would later refute by inserting, in his own hand "I, Pope John XXIII, have never been a Modernist". Certainly the friendship was never repudiated, and according to theologian Giovanni Gennari, Roncalli (who was assisted by Buonaiuti in saying his first Mass in 1904) is known to have used material written by the future excommunicate in teaching Church History. Historians generally agree that the association did not taint Roncalli's orthodoxy, even if he is known to have retained a certain regard for his erstwhile colleague. Indeed Cardinal Capovilla, who was secretary to John XXIII, attributes to his late superior the following sentiments: Portrayal in film Ricky Tognazzi's 2003 film The Good Pope has a character called Nicola Catania who is loosely based on Buonaiuti, although a certain amount of licence is employed. The movie has Catania, a priest deposed for Modernism, keeping vigil in St. Peter's Square as John XXIII, who had been his friend in the seminary